The fans didn’t shriek quite like they did in the Ed Sullivan Theater back in 1964, but the enthusiasm was defintely there when 350 friends of the Denver Center Alliance were seated front and center at Denver’s Buell Theatre for “Rain,” a Beatles tribute show starring the faux Fab Four: Ralph Castelli (Ringo); Joey Curatolo (Paul McCartney); Joe Bithorn (George Harrison) and Steve Landes (John Lennon).
After seeing the show on Sept. 26, the Alliance followers adjourned to the Donald R. Seawell Grand Ballroom for Beatles Bash, a dinner party highlighted by the presentation of the 2009 Florence K. Ruston Award for Philanthropy in the Arts to Leo and Susan Kiely.
The Kielys — he is chief executive officer at Molson-Coors — were honored for their longstanding personal and corporate support of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Separately and as a couple they have held leadership positions on the DCPA’s governing board and the Alliance’s signature fund-raiser, Saturday Night Alive. They have also arranged for the brewery to sponsor numerous DCPA programs, especially those involving students, community outreach and accessibility.
In fact, they were even one of four couples chairing Beatles Bash, serving with Dan Ritchie and Joy Burns; Margot and Allan Frank; and Faye and Dr. Reginald Washington. Ritchie is the DCPA’s chairman.
The award was presented by Ruston’s daughter, Adrienne Ruston Fitzgibbons, who attended Beatles Bash with her husband, Jack.
The evening’s $50,000 profit goes to the DCPA’s student matinee program.BJ Dyer and Guenther Vogt, owners of Bouquets, oversaw the decor, festooning Seawell Ballroom in electric colors reminiscent of the psychedelic 1960s. The floral artists had double-duty that night, also decorating the Sheraton Denver Downtown for the High Hopes Carousel Ball.
Guests included Mayor John Hickenlooper; DCPA founder Donald Seawell; Kent Thompson, artistic director of the Denver Center Theatre Company, and his wife, actress Kathleen McCall; Qwest’s chief executive, Ed Mueller, and his wife, Susan; Jack Finlaw, the city’s director of theaters and arenas, with partner Greg Movesian; Alliance president Gayle Novak and her husband, Ed; Roger Ogden and Ann Penny; Stan and Sarah Sena, who are chairing Saturday Night Alive 2010; Dutchess Scheitler; Edna Chang-Grant; Barry and Mary Berlin; Hilja Herfurth; Jerry and Debi Tepper; Martin and JoAnn Semple; Jim and Kate Taucher; Jane Prancan; Bob Grabowski and Ann Padilla; Bob and Carole Slosky; and former Ruston Award recipients Bob and Judi Newman and Jim and Alison Shetter.